Notes Traveler 8.5.

x Best Practices

John Johnson
Field Support Services johnjo@us.ibm.com
2006 IBM Corporation

IBM Software Group | Lotus software

Best Practices

Server OS
Install Lotus Traveler on Windows 64-bit server
Access to > 2GB virtual memory is critical in larger mobile user populations (> 300) Virtual memory is shared Group | Domino software and can IBM Software across all Lotus processes exceed 2GB For 32-bit servers Reduce memory overhead with notes.ini setting NFS_BUFFER_POOL_SIZE_MB=256

Avoid running other applications on the Lotus Traveler server

Some applications make server changes which are not compatible with Lotus Traveler (e.g. Disabling HTTP JVM)

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Best Practices

Key Domino Statistics to monitor

CPU utilization Significant bottleneck threshold is Total CPU > 70% and the critical bottleneck threshold is Total CPU > 80% IBM Software Group | Lotus software Monitor with Windows perfmon tool or Domino server statistics The domino statistic is 'Platform.System.PctCombinedCpuUtil'

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Best Practices

Key Domino Statistics to monitor

Memory utilization Should not consistently exceed 60% utilized Domino statistic IBM Software Tell traveler mem show

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Best Practices
Daily Traveler Status Verify the status of the Notes Traveler server daily by running the command 'tell traveler status' This will give various listings. Look for the status of Red, Yellow, or Green, such as the following:

IBM Software Group | Lotus software

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Best Practices
Daily Traveler Status - continued If the status is green, no further checking is necessary. If the status is Yellow or Red, some review is necessary. Most yellow and red status are caused by threads becoming hung. These are explained in this link: http://wwwIBM Software Group | Lotus software 10.lotus.com/ldd/dominowiki.nsf/dx/Status_command_considerations_a nd_examples_LNT853 However, other causes may also be listed. A listing of possible results and what they mean can be found at this link: http://www10.lotus.com/ldd/dominowiki.nsf/dx/System_status_results_LNT853

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Best Practices

iPhone network topology

Recommend SSL connection to a proxy or Lotus Traveler server for Apple devices VPN is useful for a secondary connection method, not primary VPN must be manually connected by the device user IBM Software Group | Lotus software VPN frequently disconnects Push does not work over VPN VPN is still desirable since it is needed to connect to other Intranet applications such as internal web servers Make sure that Lotus Traveler connection URL is accessible from external Internet and internal Intranet (WiFi)

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Best Practices

Server Threads
If enough server threads are not available, devices will fail to sync with 503 error (Server not available) Verify thread allocation matches expected number of active devices

Beginning in 8.5.2, all devices use HTTP threads Set HTTP Active Threads to 1.2 times active devices Server Configuration | Internet Protocols | HTTP

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Domino HTTP threads are allocated at startup, so do not allocate more threads than needed

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Best Practices

Device Connections
Configure Domino HTTP server to use SSL and redirect HTTP port to SSL

Redirecting allows Group | Lotus software or https IBM Software end users to type in either http from their browser and they will get to the website page If only HTTPS is enabled, then browser just gets a server not found error if user uses default http

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Best Practices Device Connections (continued)

Make sure to modify Apple.xml to set host connection to SSL and if using a proxy to set the proxy host value
(e.g. C:\Domino\data\traveler\cfg\client\Apple.xml)

If Proxy is using a custom URL path, make sure it routes to traveler_host/servlet/traveler Details at:

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http://www-10.lotus.com/ldd/dominowiki.nsf/dx/Securing_the_connection_LNT853

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Best Practices
Single Sign On Only applicable if you are using an authenticating proxy in front of Lotus Traveler server Must setup Domino HTTP session authentication for multi-server authentication Setup to use LTPA tokens Proxy handles authentication at the front-end, inserts trusted LTPA token as credentials Removes need to re-authenticate the user at the HTTP service on the Lotus Traveler server

IBM Software Group | Lotus software

IBM Software Group | Lotus software

Best Practices

Password Lockout
If authenticating against corporate LDAP or system
which locks out after 'n' failed password attempts, consider enabling Domino Internet Lockout database.
Typical failing scenario is that user changes backend intranet password every 'n' days and forgets to change on the device IBM Software Group | Lotus software Traveler on WM/Nokia devices stop retrying after 1 failure, but Apple devices continue to retry http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/lotus/library/domino8lockout/index.html Lotus Mobile Connect HTTP Access feature is tuned to support this well, so is recommended as a front-end proxy

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Best Practices

Off Line Maintenance

The following databases require maintenance on a regular interval: names.nsf log.nsf rename the log.nsf during each maintenance period. ntsdb.nsf IBM Software Group | Lotus software NotesTraveler.nsf Ntsclcache.nsf The recommended off-line procedures would be: nCompact C (Note: if transaction logging is enabled, -C should not be used unless a backup is taken immediately after compact) nUpdall R

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Best Practices

Off Line Maintenance - Continued

Defrag of internal database This will run automatically upon restarts of the Notes Traveler server Can be a time consuming process, so set a limit on the defrag IBM Software Group | of days since the last process to run only after 'n' number Lotus software time it was run. Add the following to notes.ini: NTS_DEFRAG_INTERVAL_DAYS=n See this link for additional information http://www-10.lotus.com/ldd/dominowiki.nsf/page.xsp? documentId=48769B1EDA7C84C0852578A8005A625E&action =openDocument

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Best Practices

Transactional Logging
Purpose of the Notes Traveler server is to pass along requests for information, more so than the updating of databases. Transaction Logging is an unnecessary software on IBM Software Group | Lotus overhead system resources Recommendation is to disable

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Best Practices

References

Recommended Maintenance:
http://www.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?uid=swg24019529

Product Web site:

http://www-10.lotus.com/ldd/dominowiki.nsf/xpViewCategories.xsp? lookupName=Administering%20Lotus%20Notes%20Traveler%208.5.3

Fix Central:

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http://www.ibm.com/support/fixcentral

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Best Practices

References
Domino Wiki
http://www-10.lotus.com/ldd/dominowiki.nsf

IBM Lotus Notes Traveler 8.5 performance

http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/lotus/library/notes852-trav-perf/index.html IBM Software Group | Lotus software

Traveler Console Commands

http://www-10.lotus.com/ldd/dominowiki.nsf/dx/Console_commands_LNT853

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Questions?
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